Lonely Night

Just finished my exam.....nothing to do ......
Plan to go out for a drink with friends....
But my friend got something turn up so have to cancel.......
It's Monday night.........there isn't coolzy wind....
there isn't any bright shinning star..........
there isn't any moon.........
Just like my feeling.......nothing but nothing.........
There is no what so call excitement nor boring........
No matter what you feel how you feel.......
You still have to go on with it.........

So I take out a DVD and watch for the night......
"All About Love" starring by Andy Lau and Charlie Yeung.
No matter how many times I have watched before.........
It's still touch my heart like it always do........
My tears.......drop.......and drop.....
My heart still feeling the hurt and the pain..........
The pain that I thought I have left it behind.........
I still miss you............miss you so much...........
You used to spend the night with me.........
After my exam when I was in States...........
I used to cuddle you to sleep..........
But now I am just a lonely fella.........
A lonely fella that you left behind............

Limitation and Problem of Diversification

Since there is numerous of advantages to apply diversification, definitely there will be certain of limitation and failures of applying diversification. First limitation that will be encountered by PepsiCo during applying diversification was the bureaucratic costs and control. This is because control and bureaucratic costs of PepsiCo will be increased as the scope of its diversification widen once they planned to diversify its corporation. This is because diversification eventually will lead to decentralization within the corporation, especially during the merger with Frito-Lay as Pepsi-Cola would have to shift its resources and to make a huge movement into some unknown areas that will enquire huge decentralization of power from Pepsi-Cola into PepsiCo. This sometimes might lead to an over-decentralized situation where by the top managers of PepsiCo becomes isolated and even out-of-touch with his down management people.

Moreover an extensive diversification tends to depress rather than improve the profitability of an organization of which was experimented by PepsiCo when it acquired Mountain Dew, and created Pepsi blue. This acquisition intends to improve the quality of the company’s product and to boost up the product sales. However Pepsi blue was in fact was not as successful as hoped or planned.

Widen diversification such as PepsiCo might cause the company to be inability to identify the unique profit contribution by its business unit as well as to create an information overloaded situation within the organization. This is because PepsiCo shares its resources with other units such as Frito-Lay, Quaker Oats, and Mountain Dew. Once again this will caused the costs in these large, complex organizations to arise due to its managerial inefficiencies.

Lastly but not the least, there always a situation where by there would be some diversification failure cases. There would be diversification failure case when the diversification value is likely to be dissipates. Coca-cola has faced it when Coca-cola acquired Columbia Pictures and wine-producing businesses whereas PepsiCo suffered the acquisition error costs when it acquired the several fast food restaurants such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell as PepsiCo chain of distribution. This is because the acquisition has allowing its competitor Coca-Cola to secure rights of distribution in chains such as McDonald’s and Wendy’s who have a greater market share than either Pizza Hut, Taco Bell or even Kentucky Fried Chicken. This acquisition has caused a short term loss to PepsiCo whereby it suffers high cost rather than it was supposed to create value in the acquisition of these restaurants as its chain of distribution.

Eventually I know that the company of Pepsi-Cola has increased its net product sales after all the diversification mergers and acquisition. However it was not the real increase of Pepsi-Cola because the sales have increased due to all the new acquisitions and not because of its increased sales. For this reason I think that PepsiCo should consolidate its old products and try to increase its sales; of which means PepsiCo reconstructed its Pepsi-Cola, International Beverage sector.

I would advise that Pepsi should try to expand more on the certain geographical areas. By instead of just having one division based in New York, PepsiCo Beverages International should separate this division into several divisions for the rest of the world like in Asia, Europe etc.

Besides PepsiCo should focuses more on in the international marketplace as their key area of success for its future. It should enter into these globalize markets with enough resources and a good management structure in place before Coca-Cola. This in order to convince the consumers in it regarding about the Pepsi taste is the best.

Moreover PepsiCo should continue to pursue the Chinese and to operation in the Chinese market as an attempt to compete with Coca-Cola Enterprises. For the Chinese market, is one of the largest markets in the world for most organization including Pepsi-cola. Nevertheless PepsiCo should pay more attention of not getting involved itself against in any political scandals here in China. This is because China is totally has a different cultural, locally and governmental level than its local America and other global countries such as Mexico.

In addition PepsiCo should be aware that the old age of Pepsi-cola v Coca-cola has ended. This is because beside Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola, there are other up-and-coming beverage companies, such as Cott. So in order for PepsiCo to be succeeded in creating a successful company and as a dominant place in the market, PepsiCo should be outstanding enough in order to beat not only Coca-cola and Cott but others as well.

In order for PepsiCo to be outstanding enough, PepsiCo now not only has diversified food chain companies but also to more be involved in the entertainment industry. This is because entertainment industry can help to build strong reputation among consumers. The Pepsi World should also include or involve more in sport and music rather than just beverages and snack food. For example that Pepsi signed Michael Jackson in the 80’s for its advertisement and later sponsored in Michael albums and concert. Now PepsiCo has signed an agreement for sponsorship in the NFL, the largest football league in the US. I can see that PepsiCo will have great coverage at all games, enabling them to target their young and hip market. Moreover PepsiCo held a big celebration’s concert in Hong Kong in year 2003 and charity concert yearly over in Hong Kong.

Benefits of Diversification to PepsiCo

PepsiCo definitely has enjoyed several benefits from applying diversification of merger and acquisition in its strategy of expanding its markets. But there are so many benefits that can gain from applying related diversification and unrelated diversification, and not all of the benefits have benefited PepsiCo. Advantages that shared by organization when applying related and unrelated diversification are listed in the below exhibit.

Related Diversification	Unrelated Diversification
Spreading risks	Spreading risks
Access to information	Escape from present business
Control of supplies in Quantity, Quality and Price.	Need to use excess cash or safeguard profits
Control Markets	Personal values or objectives of powerful figures
Cost savings	Benefits from synergistic effects
Resource utilization	Exploiting underutilized resources and competences
Building on core competences and technology	Even out cyclical effects in a given sector

Since the year of 1965 after merging with Frito-Lay, PepsiCo was able to increase its volume of sales and get a stronger market position through using diversification techniques and brand management. This has make PepsiCo to able to escape from its present business, because even until present days the Pepsi’s carbonated beverages division clearly remains behind the snack division in terms of profitability and share percentage of operation earnings.

What’s more with the diversification strategy of management has enabled PepsiCo to spread it risk taken within the same area. This is because after take over Mountain Dew, Pepsi has turned heavily on its focus towards gaining a better position in the beverage industry by finding new ways to differentiate from Coke and to take advantage of strategic alliances in the market.

Diversification also gives chance to PepsiCo to control of its supplies and to exploit underutilized resources and competences especially when PepsiCo started its Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) Strategy in March 1999. This is because with PBG, PepsiCo’s can focus on what it does best now, which is developing its powerful brands and the world-class marketing programs depending on PBG’s superior sales execution, customer service, merchandising and operating excellence. Meanwhile PBG not only was given right by Pepsi Co to produce PepsiCo’s products, but also given right by Cadbury Schweppes to do Dr. Pepper and their other products.

Lastly with diversification, merger and acquisition that have helped a lot in PepsiCo cost savings. This is because with the latest computer technology, all PepsiCo have to do is to invest in a new and more efficient communication computer system called “GenerationNet”. With this, it can enable PepsiCo to serve both, lower cost and customer responsiveness as well as to advertise and to promote all PepsiCo products up in the internet.

Until here, all that have been discussed are regarding to expound on the benefits of diversification. And a corporate in this must be diversified to some degree in order to be competitive in this globalize market; none of the corporations wishes to “put all their eggs in one basket” and expose themselves to the inherent risk of holding only one single business line. But how far can a corporation go in spreading their bet? Is there any problems and limits that will be suffered by corporation when they applied diversification?

Pepsi-Cola and its Diversification Strategy

Who would never come across the name of PepsiCo in these present days? PepsiCo is a beverage brand name that has 100 years of history. It was started after there was a pharmacist called Caleb Bradham in the town of New Bern in North Carolina of the United State of America at year of 1896, when he tried to create drinks that would be delicious, healthy, aiding digestion and boosting energy. One of the drinks turned out to be very popular to his customer and was called as Brad’s drink.

Brad’s business was small and just conducted within an immediate territory. His business came to a change when the drink was named as “Pepsi” by the year of 1898 and was given its first logo and patented trademark. The hit of people going after Pepsi has given chances for Brad to transform the company into a fully-fledged business in the year of 1902.

From the year 1903 to 1908 it seems to be no problem at all for Pepsi-Cola to grow its popularity as a new soft drink in the markets. Not until the end of World War I when the price of sugar began to fluctuate wildly and caused Pepsi-Cola to bankruptcy in the year of 1923. On 7 March 1923, Roy C. Megargel paid $35,000 to the Craven Holding Corporation whom bought over Pepsi-Cola trademark and assets at auction for $30,000.

But after a few years, Megargel once again fail to lead Pepsi-Cola and caused Pepsi-Cola to suffer from agony loss or bankruptcy in the year of 1931. Pepsi-Cola then was taking over by Charles G. Guth and eventually started the most famous “Cola Wars”. During the moment of Charles G. Guth was an executive from the Loft Candy Company. The Coca-Cola Company had make Guth a victim as the Coca-Cola Company refused to give him a jobber's discount on syrup served at over 138 candy stores in the greater New York area. So in response to this snub, Guth purchased the sole rights to the trademark and the assets of the defunct Pepsi-Cola Company for $10,500 as well as to reformulate the formula for Pepsi-Cola syrup.

Guth successfully to bring Pepsi-Cola up to the front line with Coke-Cola and has become second largest soda beverage company in World even during the time of World War II. However Pepsi-Cola still lost to Coke-Cola until Pepsi-Cola was lead by Donald Kendall in the year of 1963.

Donald Kendall was the first person in Pepsi-Cola to implement diversification strategy in managing and leading Pepsi-Cola. First of all Donald Kendall started to imply the related diversification strategy by introducing new taste of Pepsi of which was the Patio Diet Cola. The type of cola that is without sugar and zero calories; but to contain the artificial sweetener aspartame; and it can be either sold with or without caffeine. Later on it was being replaced by Diet Pepsi-Cola in the year of 1964.

However this implementation of diversify related products did not help much in increasing Pepsi net sales and in winning sales from its competitors. This is because when Pepsi diversify its single line product of classic cola with two line product of Diet Pepsi-Cola, its competitors such as Coca-Cola would be doing the same thing of coming up with its new line product or Diet Coke. So in order for Pepsi-Cola to be able to achieve its specific goals of becoming World Number One beverages and to guarantee Pepsi long-term sustained achievement of "fast profitable growth" for their business.; they have to keep up with a rapidly increasing diversified global market and increased competition.

Donald Kendall as the CEO of Pepsi-Cola during that moment has also noticed the critical competitive advantage issue that was facing by Pepsi-Cola. So he led Pepsi-Cola to take a horizontal integration by taking over one of the Pepsi-Cola competitors, the Tip Corporation of America which producers of "Mountain Dew" in the year of 1964.

After taking over of “Mountain Dew”, Donald Kendall tended to apply the unrelated diversification by approaching Herman Lay the Frito-Lay’s CEO, in the year of 1965 with a proposition, “You make them thirsty and I’ll give them Pepsi.” With this complementary of Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay, then PepsiCo, Inc. (PepsiCo) was born and to be able to stay strong with Coke to continue the “Cola War”.

This is one of the greatest jobs that Donald Kendall brought to Pepsi-Cola, as this merger allowed PepsiCo to become one of the world’s largest manufacturers, marketers, and wholesalers of beverage and food products. This merger has given PepsiCo territories of at least 142,000 employees which operated in nearly 200 countries.

Undeniable that with this merger has helped Pepsi-Cola a lot especially to stay firm in size and to gain competitive advantages from the markets. However with this merger it has brought Pepsi-Cola into a more high competitive rivalry with others companies especially the four big organizations of which are the Coke, Proctor and Gamble, Lance and Kraft; that has nearly created an oligopoly market situation where by there only 4 suppliers with intense rivalry to supply for the snack and convenient food market.

In order for PepsiCo to gain strength and to be more competitive in the market, beside as part of this merger, PepsiCo has experienced growth in product diversification and distribution through the acquisition process. These acquisitions have included merger that is combining of two or more companies into a single corporation; such as merger PepsiCo with Quaker Oats, merger PepsiCo with Crack Jack sweet snack food, and merger PepsiCo with Tropicana brand juices; this is to expand PepsiCo’s economies of scale.

In addition, PepsiCo also acquired into several restaurants applying related diversification through forward integration, this is because restaurant is one of the distribution channel to supply soft drink to consumers. Pepsi acquired those most notably restaurants, such as Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, to form PepsiCo Food Service International (PFSI) in order for PepsiCo to focus on overseas development of restaurants.

In the recent year PepsiCo also applied the backward integration of related diversification strategy, by establishing its own bottling group through the Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) Strategy in March 1999.

So what benefits that PepsiCo gain from applying these diversification strategies of merger and acquisition in diversifying and expanding its markets? Did PepsiCo suffer any cost from this implementation?

Diversification

Since the 1980's, and even more in these twenty first centuries, diversification has become a new trend for companies to expand their businesses, including those whether is large or small, domestic or even foreign, to form strategic alliances within their particular industries; even though it has been argued that diversification in many companies did not led to good performance.. Diversification is known as measurement of the commonality for a population in science and mathematic whereas directions of development that bring an organization to out of its current markets and products are the meaning for diversification in business strategy.

Most people in this world doing their business in two ways, either to be divided “all eggs in different basket” of which means multiple business strategies or “all one’s eggs in one basket” of which means single business strategies. Single business strategies have its number of advantages because it is easier to control and easier to practice specialization, however it also carry its certain number of risks for it just like investing all the money into one, and the risk is often high for there is only either you gain all of it or you loss all you have.

The other way the multiple strategies or diversification is a better way to do business because that has help to spread up corporate risk across multiple industries. Diversification is only making sense when it has enhanced the shareholder value.

Diversification is originally divided into two broad ways, of which are the related diversification and the unrelated diversification. Related diversification simply means the entry of a new business activity that distinctly is a different kind of industry but with related to the existing organization’s value chains possess strategic “fit” in operations, marketing, management, R&D. distribution, labor, and also business activities.

There are three ways in directing related diversification, and the three ways are the backward integration of which organization implemented new business activities that are related to the inputs of current business such as raw materials or suppliers. Follow by the forward integration of which is another kind of developing new organization business activity that will be relating to the products of the organization such as its distribution channel. Lastly but not least is the horizontal integration of which is a new business strategy of integrating its market competitors or complementary to its current market interest.

On the other side, the unrelated diversification is the other way of entering into industries that obviously no connection of value chain interrelationships to any of the existing business value chain activities or even no common linkage of strategic that fit among the previous single business units. Unrelated diversification give opportunity for organization to venture into attractive industries that with solid potential of financial returns. Unrelated diversification also helps to spread the risk of businesses over its different division of industries in order to stabilize the corporate profitability.

There also three categories of directing an unrelated diversification strategy and extending to new products and markets through exploiting the current core competences of an organization is the one of the categories. Follow by diversification through exploiting the core competences that go beyond the existing market, in other word simply means to create a genuinely new market. The third category is one of the most extreme type of which it simply will create new competences for new market opportunities.

是愛還是恨

很快﹐ 人的日子真快。 。 。
就這麼一眨眼就快半年 了 ﹐
眼見07年就這麼一天天的過 。
這兩年來我都是封鎖著我的心 ﹐
是愛的枷鎖還是恨的枷鎖﹔
我真的分不清﹐ 也講不明。
今天就用我最討厭的顏色來寫一些東西吧 ﹗
兩年前的四月﹐ 是我最倒霉的一個月﹔
這一個月也是我最痛心的 ﹐
跟一個交往一陣子的人散後才原來她一直都在騙我 ﹐
又失去了一輩子最愛的人 。
我從不去恨分手的人﹐ 但這一個是例外的 。
到現在我真的很不想聽有關於這個人的東西﹔
就連包括了她的名她的姓。
還好我的朋友當中﹐沒有這樣字言的人。
我不是真的或存心要去恨這個人﹐
但原來要100%去 寬恕像這樣的騙子﹐
真的很難 。 。 。 因為只要聽到"司徒" 或 "昕",
我真個人就會變得失控而講出不理智的話。
真的太倒霉才會去遇上這樣的人﹐
從此我也不再去信任任何人。
同一年也失去了我這一輩子最愛的妳---楓﹐
失去了妳讓我完全掉入了深淵﹐
也做了最放縱的事 ﹐ 因為當我真的很想迷失自己。
但到今天我依然不知到底我是因為愛還是恨。 。 。 。 。
我真希望不會是恨﹐ 因為恨的感覺實在不好受。
但很多時候我真的無法控制我自己。 。 。
不去恨那個人跟不去想念楓。 。 。

清明節

清明時節雨紛紛﹐路上行人欲斷魂。
但我每年都會去清明至少兩次﹐
今年的我也只有去兩次。
一次就在清明節時﹐另一次就在復活節。
只是相差不到一個月﹐但是那週圍的野草已經長了。
看看那墓碑﹐不經不覺舅舅你已經離開我們近10年了。
但這10年來我們都是乎沒把你忘記﹐
10 年的歲月也無法把你的影子挪走。
對你的點點滴滴一直都在我們的心中。
墓碑是冷冰冰的﹐但我們的心望著你的遺照時﹐
那心依然會流淚。。。
很多時候我們是多麼希望你不曾離開過﹐
多麼希望你依然存在﹐依然在我們的身旁。
直從你離開後﹐我也很久沒有再去海邊了。
記得小時候只有你會帶我去﹐ 好懷念有你在的時光啊。

別再煩----我

別再問我同一個問題﹐這真的很煩的事啊。
別再問我心裡到底在牽掛著誰﹖
別再找我。。。別再煩。。。。
不想看到妳的訊息﹐
不想聽到妳的電話﹐
更不想再看到妳。。。
就當我們從不曾認識過﹗﹗﹗﹗﹗
或許我不該去結識妳﹐
因我心底愛的---只有她一個。。。。。

我從不曾放下她﹐也不曾忘記她。
即使在我們分手時﹐我依然只有她在心。
即使她已經不在了﹐但我心依然刻有她一個。
至於妳的問題我這一生都不會答﹐也不想答。
答了會傷了妳﹐我不想這樣。。。。